In spite of the extensive clinical resources devoted to management of hip disorders in children, there is an almost total absence of quantitative data regarding the mechanical structural behavior of the juvenile femur. We propose to conduct a detailed engineering investigation of the load transmission through the proximal femurs of normal children, aged one through seven years. In the upcoming funding year, our experiments on the constitutive behavior of chondroepiphysis will continue, using a simple linearly viscoelastic approximation of biphasic material behavior developed during the previous year. Axial compression tests of newly-ossified trabecular bone specimens are expected to begin early in the upcoming year, as are axial tension tests of cortical bone specimens from the proximal diaphysis and neck. We plan a series of bench tests to further explore the efficacy of Prescale film as a substitute for piezoresistive transducers for the human contact pressure measurements. Work on developing a semi-automated finite element mesh generating scheme will be continued, to be followed by a "dry run" of the full three-dimensional stress analysis problem. Intensified efforts will be focused on the problem of obtaining more human autopsy specimens. By the end of the upcoming year, we hope to be into the early production phase of collecting constitutive data performing stress analyses on several of these final human specimens.